Archive for the 'Children' Category

Posted by Eric (February 9, 2010 at 1:57 am)

This evening I walked into the house a little lateâ€”around 5:45 after first stopping at the library for four copies of To Kill a Mockingbird and then dropping my assistant Matt off at home to spare his wife, eight weeks with child, from having to drag their two little boys out into the cold to pick him upâ€”and my four-year-old daughter Mary (who is a pixie) cried, “Daddy’s Home!” and ranâ€”not into my armsâ€”but back into the dining room where dinner was warm and ready to eat.

Posted by Eric (June 7, 2007 at 2:38 pm)

Several people have expressed curiosity about the reference to “vandalism” in my sketchy notes to Sarah Paraskeva’s birth story. I’m impressed that people are actually reading the notes, which are there to help me finally finish the full account of her birth story.

Unfortunately, I could not get a photo of the “vandalized note” in question to come out. But I do have a picture of me with “Baby William” which will give you an idea of what kind of state I was in after three days pacing around hospital rooms. William was fashioned from a blown-up surgical glove, onto which I drew a face: the thumb became William’s nose; the fingers his Mohawk.

William was “born” when my seven other children were visiting us the evening after Sarah was born. For some reason they let the whole crew in there at once, and Daddy got rather silly. Another silliness was my “vandalism” of the note that had been taped onto Sarah’s bassinet.

Posted by Eric (March 28, 2007 at 8:29 pm)

Here is a photo of a block tower I made with my son Nate. Nate is 14 and, some might say, too old to play with blocks. But I am 40 and not too old to play with blocksâ€”or perhaps I am too old not to play with blocks. In any case, getting to play with blocks at 40 is one of the benefits of being a father, and getting to play with blocks at 14 is one of the benefits of having a father who loves to play with blocks.

I share this photo because I want to talk about boys and girls and how they play, but I have to get there by way of a visit to the obstetrician’s office yesterday afternoon.

Posted by Eric (May 24, 2006 at 1:30 pm)

A few Saturdays ago day I beheld a delightful thing: three little girls were dancing around together in an open space in one of the party rooms of a restaurant. They were dressed up in fancy dresses and I suppose it made them feel like princesses of ballerinas. Their dance somehow combined elegant pirouettes with the bunny hop. A fourth, much littler girl tentatively tried to join in while the little brother of one of girls watched them, gleefully giggling at their silly, joyful dance.

I was considering hunting down my own littler girlsâ€”our whole family were guests at the partyâ€”to see if they would like to join in the dancing too, when one of the grown ups, an aunt or perhaps a wicked step-mother, came upon the little group and ordered them to stop. “This is neither the time nor the place for dancing,” she said. “You can sit down together and talk, or quietly play a game.”